Idolator

· "Scoff at all of this hype if you will, but Fall Out Boy's melodic, exuberant and smartly written songs justify the excitement. And Infinity on High is a major leap forward, bringing a wild ambition to the simple genre patented by the Ramones, revived by fellow Chicagoans Screeching Weasel and turned into a platinum phenomenon by the likes of Green Day and Blink-182. The band's roots are still obvious, but this ain't your father's pop-punk anymore." [Chicago Sun-Times]
· "Singer Patrick Stump has a voice that's made for the almost-soulfulness that's crept into the band's otherwise gleefully traditional emo-pop. He also has a knack for sounding genuinely self-deprecating (best demonstrated on the rattling 'Fame< Infamy'), which for Fall Out Boy is as necessary as air. The band's ability to make itself the butt of the joke before anyone else can is what most infuriates its critics and, occasionally, is the only thing that saves it from itself." [Washington Post]
· "'A penny for your thoughts/But a dollar for your insides/And a fortune for your disaster/I'm just a painter... And I'm drawing a blank,' Stump sings in the galloping power-pop blast ''Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?'' Like all Fall Out Boy lyrics, it's not quite as clever as Wentz seems to think, and his obsession with posers, lame 'scenes,' and, above all, his own band might annoy listeners not currently enrolled in high school. But Wentz's words have a pleasing vernacular spunkiness — this is the Esperanto of young American suburbia, poetry of the mall and the chat room. Who but Wentz would brag, 'Every dotcom's refreshing for a journal update'?" [EW]
· "Every so often Fall Out Boy returns to the kind of messed-up relationship songs that made it so popular. And instead of gloating about success, the band stays wary about show business and its own status as a commodity: 'I'm a salesman selling hooks,' Patrick Stump sings in "Fame < Infamy," adding, 'There's too much green to feel blue.' Fall Out Boy hasn't turned into a band of rock-star blowhards yet; it's still too hyperactive and catchy. But the songs were more fun when it was a band of underdogs." [NYT]

- "Without the Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington covers and the jazz-inflected compositions of her guitarist Jesse Harris (whose song "Don't Know Why" catapulted Jones to stardom), Not Too Late has a more consistent singer-songwriter feel. And that translates to a subtle, but piquant, new dark streak that goes a long way toward lifting Jones's songs out of the realm of background music." [Boston Globe]
- "Given Jones' recent attempts to stretch, one might expect Not Too Late to be a radical departure from her jazz-blues debut, 2002's Come Away With Me, and her countrified 2004 follow-up, Feels Like Home. But sonically, at least, the album takes only a small step away from the latte-lover mainstream. Produced by her bassist and boyfriend, Lee Alexander, Not Too Late has a slightly rougher, home-studio sound, yet the music — slow, gorgeous dream-pop ballads — is sleepier than ever." [Entertainment Weekly]
- "Jones's voice, always more characterful than the easy-listening tag ever implied, sometimes shifts to a strange place between Madeleine Peyroux's or Diane Krall's jazzy smokiness (they're all Billie Holiday fans) and the weird pop delicacy of a Joanna Newsom. But Jones's and partner Lee Alexander's tunes need to improve if the singer isn't to retreat to covering classics again, as she almost certainly will. It's pretty music (though the sugary Little Room gets to tooth-twinge point), beautifully performed. But Norah Jones has more to offer than this, and the needs of the EMI boardroom probably won't help her find it." [The Guardian]